Savage Wonder

Michael Jerome Plunkett  served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. After working in the financial industry for Fidelity Investments and Morgan Stanley for several years he began pursuing fiction writing and acquired his MFA at College of Charleston. He currently works as an EMT. His writing has been published by Coffee of Die (Black Rifle Coffee) , Dead Reckoning C...

Savage Wonder podcast, episode 73 with Navy veteran Logan Vath . Logan is an award-winning singer/songwriter from Norfolk, Virginia. A Midwest native, he has established himself as a biographical lyricist who finds balance in intricate phrasing and a simple, genuine connection to his audience. His songs have found themselves on Spotify's "Roots on the Rise" and "Fresh Folk" playlists, as well as A...

Michael D. Fay is a former USMC Combat Artist with multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mike enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1975 and was discharged in 1978 as an 81 mm mortarman (MOS 0341). In 1978, he returned to Penn State Univeristy and graduated in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in Art Education. In 1983, re-enlisted into the Marines and served as an avionics...

A Coast Guard veteran and native of Long Beach, California, Reagan Pettigrew found his love for reading and writing while in the military. After his discharge, he began a new life on the road that took him from America to Europe. Suicide In Slow Motion is his breakout novel. From Long Beach, California to the mountains of the Pyrenees in northern Spain,  Suicide In Slow Motion  takes the...

Neville Johnson was born and raised in South Africa by a Mum who was a Nurse and a Dad who was a Police Officer. This early exposure to a life of service to country influenced his most significant life decisions. Before he started writing, this path took him to the United Kingdom, where he ended up in London as a member of her Majesty’s Royal Infantry. Neville currently resides in New Zealand with...

Charles McCaffrey is a Navy Veteran with over 35 years of military, government contracting and small business experience; and is a serial entrepreneur, instructor, mentor and ardent supporter of the military community. Charles serves as the Director of the Veterans Career Program (VCP) at Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) that provides FREE employment support and vocational counseling assistance...

Kacy Tellesen was born in Spokane and raised in Spangle, Washington, a small farming community that clings to the edge of the Palouse. Kacy joined the Marine Corps infantry directly out of high school and deployed twice to Iraq as an Infantry machine gunner with Second Battalion, Third Marines from 2005-2009. He lives in Spangle, Washington with his wife and two children and is currently&nbsp...

Ben Cantwell is a USMC veteran, firefighter and artist from Northern California. His original work reflects his experience as an infantry veteran. Featuring an array of styles, moods and themes, Cantwell’s work is available on custom shirts, playing cards, patches and more. See it here .

Francisco is a product of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and serves as an editor and contributing writer to Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel . He is an Into the Fire  writing retreat scholarship recipient, and a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellow. He is a product of the Writers Guild Foundation Veterans Writing Project , and the Veteran’s Summer Writing Int...

Denis Meadows has been plying the craft of playwriting for a long time, encouraged along the way by the likes of Lloyd Richards, Austin Pendleton, Zoe Caldwell, Audrey Wood, Bill Irwin and Robert Ganz. His play A BRUSH AGAINST THE INDIFFERENCE OF THE UNIVERSE placed second (out of over 200 submissions) in VetRep's latest 10-minute playwriting competition.

David M. Stamps has developed a play entitled, “The Black Bullet Dichotomy.” It placed as a Finalist in the Arts in the Armed Forces Competition. As well as, Finalist in The Writer’s Guild Foundation, a non-profit affiliated with The Writer’s Guild of America Veteran’s Writing Program. As a Writer/Producer, through his production company, SPOKEN WORLD ENTERTAINMENT, he wrote, produced, performed,...

Arianna Rose is a professional Playwright, Musical Theatre Writer, Dramaturg, Visual Artist and Educator. She is the recipient of the MAC Song of the Year Award,  the York Theatre NEO Award,  and various best play/playwright awards from Theatre Odyssey, Tree City Playhouse, Mixing It Up Productions, the Know Theatre, Studio 1 Theatre, South Baldwin Theatre, Veterans Repertory Theatre and...

Deborah Yarchun is a New Jersey-born, Air Force-raised, and Austin-rooted playwright; her plays are just as geographically discombobulated. She’s currently LA/NYC-based. Her plays have been produced and/or developed at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Centenary Stage Company, The Civilians’ R&D Group, Capital Rep, The New Harmony Project, Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse, Amphibian Stage Productions, The G...

Mike Reynolds is an active duty Marine and Marine Corps Combat Artist. With roots at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA while attending some very basic elective art classes; following the attacks of September 11th, 2001, he left college and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. As an Ammunition Technician he has been assigned to 10th Marine Regiment, 8th Marine Regiment, and Combat Logist...

Steve Callahan is a writer, a poet and a former Marine infantryman. Bursting with creative efforts, Steve runs a poetry site, podcast , and is heavily involved in PB Abbate . As someone who separated from the Corps this past February, Steve’s writing about the Marines, his deployment to Helmand and the psychological peaks and valleys of an infantryman’s life feels very fresh and relevant. In...

Angelo T. Robinson is an interdisciplinary artist and photographer who lives and works out of Senoia, GA. A self-taught artist, he joined the US Navy in 1992, where he served ten years active duty and four years in the Naval Reserves as a Seabee. Traveling to locales such as Italy, Spain, Turkey, Greece, Africa, France, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Egypt, the Virgin Islands, Israel, and the United Arab Emir...

Don’t listen to this week’s episode. Seriously. We wanted to do a cool, year-end episode to talk about the highs and lows of VetRep’s first calendar year - and we did that. Star, Dex, and Lilla were great - funny, moving, poignant even - but, well, it just sucks to do a four-person Zoom podcast. Everyone’s muted when they’re not talking so you don’t hear the laughing or crosstalk that makes it see...

The son of a WWII combat veteran, Fred Graver is an American television comedy writer, producer, and network executive. Fred was co-editor-in-chief of National Lampoon along with Sean Kelly, under the pseudonym L. Dennis Plunkett. He left the Lampoon in 1984 to join Late Night with David Letterman , where he worked as a writer until 1990. While at Letterman, he wrote several unproduced screenplays...

Army combat veteran Christopher Soucy is an actor, puppeteer, director, screenwriter, and playwright living in Savannah, Georgia. He has been writing for stage and screen for over 20 years. Read some of Chris' poetry on the Savage Wonder literary blog here . Chris tweets here . Follow Chris here .

Chris Sparks is an Army veteran who could speak Arabic, a former police officer and current stand-up comic. More than that, he's an incredibly affable, humble, intelligent and ambitious guy. His documentary Thank Me for My Service: A Veteran’s Cry for Help is a tough watch. It is tough technically – intentionally – and it is tough because of its subject matter – which is Chris himself. The film ca...

Nicholas Efstathiou is a US Army veteran. He writes horror, paranormal, and strange fiction. He has worked as a bookmobile driver, a librarian, a trashman, a bookseller, and now as a teacher. He has also ghostwritten dozens of popular books. His writing @ crossmassachusetts is not for the faint of heart.

Kristopher Battles is a contemporary fine artist creating artworks in a variety of media which honor the highest traditions of representational art. Battles graduated with a BFA in Painting from Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University) in December 1991, and earned his MFA in Illustration from the University of Hartford in September 2013. Originally serving as a Marine...

Stephen Camelio is a screenwriter and son of a Vietnam veteran who died from complications due to Agent Orange. Stephen's first film is Mending the Line , the story of a Marine returning from Afghanistan who finds mental health through fly fishing. Previously, Stephen was a freelance writer and former editor at In Style magazine. His work has appeared in books and countless publications including...

A Seattle-based playwright, photographer and novelist, David A. Tucker II has had several of his plays produced and/or developed at theaters across the nation, including Seattle Repertory Theatre, Abingdon Theater Co., ACT, Tacoma Actors Guild, and Foothill Theater Co. His theatrical works include  The Nude, Persistence of Vision, Another Day in Baghdad  (about his military experiences i...

James David Henry is an Army Ranger and combat veteran turned actor, playwright and screenwriter. He graduated from NYU's Grad Acting Program in 2021. James will appear as one of the two leads in the upcoming feature film Sirens as well as Gareth Edwards' science fiction blockbuster True Love , releasing in 2023. Follow him here .